Local fundraising at schools not just about selling chocolates anymore

But it’s not all fun and games. There is a lot of fundraising going on in Hamilton schools and parents are encouraged to either contribute their time or open their wallets.

“The worrying thing is parents feeling the pressure of the assumption that they must raise money to kind of augment the system,” Kidder said.

A little fundraising is a great way to build a sense of community in schools. But Kidder says another worry about ongoing fundraising is that the top ten per cent of schools, in terms of the amount they fundraise, raises the same amount as the bottom 80 per cent put together. That creates very big disparities.

“The danger is that it creates a lot of have and have not schools when parents are fundraising for things like art enrichment or a lot of technology — now you can fundraise for upgrades in the school building.”